After extensive testing of Android 4.3, I have decided to move up to Android 4.4.2 or more popularly know as KitKat. The reason is that the older version, there is a memory leak or management problem. After about 2 days, the phone will freeze up, requiring a power off reboot. You can extend the up time a bit by religiously clearing the Recent Tasks every few hours. I managed to drag to 4 days before the inevitable happened.
Google promised that in KitKat, the memory usage is optimized, so I decided to try again. The first two times I tried with Omni and CM11 was painful as not much features was available. Some apps keep disappearing. Maybe it is third time lucky.
I did a dirty upgrade, without clearing data and flashed Google Apps. On restart, everything is still there. Aviate launcher was working fine, the apps are there. Symantec VIP was working. So I thought all was well. Reboot it a few more times to make sure the setup was stable. I noticed I kept getting.
com.android.systemui has stopped
Unfortunately Android Keyboard (AOSP) has stopped
Oookkay. I started check through all the system settings. Google Account Sync is working fine, strangely no backup account specified. When I launch the Play Store to update some apps, it kept crashing. I quick check revealed that I have flashed the wrong Google Apps, 4.3 to be precise. Oops
A quick reboot to recovery to flash the PA modular mini Google Apps. The error message said system partition full. Oh no. Tried again with mini, the same result. Since resizing the partition is out of the question, the only answer is to format the system partition to clear out the old Jelly Bean version files. Flashed KitKat and Google Apps again. Sadly, only the micro version could fit in. Looks like a handset replacement is imminent. All the apps remained fully operational after the system format. Ahh, the wonders of Linux OS.
The only outstanding issue is how to control Google Location Service and GPS. Both are now combined. Activating Location Service for inaccurate but battery saving usage is not possible. In Android 4.3 and older, you can use Location service with the cell towers.
CM11 link GApps link Google Location link
Update 13 Mar
After 7 days of continuous use, this build has turn out to be a real beauty. All it needs is some babying for the 3G connection, the performance has been excellent. For reasons unknown, when the it loses signal at a certain train station and takes some time to come back. No memory or music play back problems. The heap management and/or garbage collection is excellent, as the free memory actually increases when the phone is idled. That never happened in Jelly Bean. I need to find some time to thoroughly test the fitness app, Endomondo.
